Charismatic, rebellious film star lived on his own terms and paved the way for future artists

Marlon Brando revolutionized film acting with his naturalistic approach, giving some of the greatest performances ever committed to celluloid. He also applied his talent in such eccentric ways, particularly over his last three decades, that he often confounded those who revered him.

An enigma to the end, the 80-year-old actor died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center of lung failure, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Brando won Oscars for his lead performances in "On the Waterfront" (1954) and "The Godfather" (1972), but his more lasting legacy may be as the iconic figure whose career paved the way for such actors as Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman. With his performance as Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), Brando changed the course of film acting, bringing a new, raw, fierce energy to the screen with his Method approach to the craft.

Whereas screen acting--and stage acting--had been seen largely as a matter of formal training and externalized actions, Method actors attempted to tap deep into their own feelings to illuminate their characters, which in Brando's case resulted in bracingly natural mumblings and startling explosions of fury.

"I think Brando invented reality on film," said Tony Kaye, director of the movie "American History X," and who was collaborating with Brando on a series of acting DVDs before the two had a falling out.

The late film critic Pauline Kael famously celebrated Brando as "our greatest living actor," but his immediate impact went far beyond the film world.

"In cultural terms, Marlon Brando was an attitude; Marlon Brando was a way of approaching life," said Neal Gabler, author of "Life the Movie." "There was a kind of recklessness to him, a danger. He was the Elvis Presley of acting before there was Elvis Presley."

And like Presley, Brando had a turbulent relationship with the changing times and his own celebrity, growing fat (though, unlike Presley, not drug-addled) in the process. The key difference may be that while Presley strained to stay current, Brando marched to his own oddly syncopated drummer, applying his talents to such less than Oscar-worthy projects as "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" (1992) and the loopy "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1996).

His last appearance came in Frank Oz's 2001 heist film "The Score," in which he worked alongside actors carrying his Method torch, De Niro and Edward Norton.

A mighty flame

"He had no respect for the acting profession in the end," said James Lipton, board member of New York's Method-teaching Actors Studio and host of the Bravo interview show "Inside the Actors Studio." "You can tell in his performances. What he really was was monumentally lazy, and this with the greatest talent that anybody ever brought to the stage or screen."

Just days before he died, reports were circulating that an upcoming book, "Brando in Twilight" by Patricia Ruiz, portrays the actor as living on government aid while owing almost $20 million to banks.

Still, as news of his death spread Friday, the reaction was of a mighty flame extinguished.

"Marlon Brando was the greatest actor of his generation and influenced my generation of actors more than any other actor," Dennis Hopper, who acted with Brando in "Apocalypse Now" (1979), said in a statement.

Contacted by e-mail, Andrew Bergman, who directed Brando's "Godfather"-spoofing performance in the 1990 comedy "The Freshman," said: "He was a joy to work with, endlessly inventive and nervy. Although I knew he was ill, I am still shocked by his death. He cannot be replaced."

"Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" director Francis Ford Coppola said in a statement: "Marlon would hate the idea of people chiming in to give their comments about his death. All I'll say is that it makes me sad he's gone."

In Los Angeles, a spray of roses, carnations and gladiolas were sent to Brando's star on Hollywood Boulevard by Johnny Grant, the symbolic "mayor" of Hollywood.

"He set the standard for a whole generation of actors. People imitated him, I mean his manner of speaking and his reserve when playing with emotions," said Adam Sloane, who walked by on his way to lunch.

Marlon Brando Jr. was born April 3, 1924, in Omaha to Marlon Brando Sr., who sold cattle and chicken feed, and Dorothy Pennebaker Brando, an Omaha Community Playhouse founder who would die from the effects of alcoholism. Brando and his two older sisters moved to Evanston when he was 6, and, later, to Libertyville, where Brando attended high school until his poor performance prompted his father to send him to military school.